Once upon a time I was stateless

Yeap – no citizenship, no rights, no nothing… One day before my trip to Norway (already booked flight, hostel) I got a letter – letter from Ukrainian Consulate. It was short, and explicit “we have taken your citizenship, it’s deprived, you are reported to give back your passport”. I felt like I would die. Letter was deleted for almost 3 weeks, so luckily or not I got it before any trip – I still haven’t visited Norway! L And I was stateless for 3 months – until I got Polish one. I had some troubles and funny situations – calls from banks, inability to derive money (Facebook was my only and real identification). When municipal police stopped me to check for my documents, I told them – I’m stateless, have no document. I think it sounded like “I’m monkey, I’m blond, let me go” and they did! And in November I had flown to Ukraine with special Passport (it was kind of a passport for people in strange situation) – on the airport customs officers were asking me “who am I, why do I speak Russian, am I here for a football game – what, me? Yeah, right! And so on, and so on… J If someone wants to give up citizenship, he/she should be prepared for a long, arduous process. Anyway those 3 months were more funny than stressful – or it was just my ability to deal with unusual stuff.

I wanted to give up my Ukrainian citizenship when I came to Poland (I think I was 13 when I claimed for the first resident permission). So after 10 years I got it! It requires patience, collection of many documents, but eventually you get it. I don’t regret, of course now I can’t go to Russia without visa… it sucks, cause my family and friends live there. I can’t tell if it’s better to have Polish citizenship, or stay with Ukrainian, I just know that it’s always hard to get through all that bureaucracy. No meter where you are or what you have to pass through, just stay positive!

At least I have some unusual stories for my friends!